This invention relates to a headlight for use with motor vehicles of a type having a reflector, a housing for receiving the reflector, a light-transmissive shield for closing a front side of the housing, a light-transmissive screen arranged between the reflector and the light-transmissive shield, and an opaque-baffle frame surrounding the light-transmissive screen with an outer edge portion thereof being mounted on the housing and an inner edge portion thereof extending toward an outer edge of the reflector.
Such a headlight for a motor vehicle is disclosed in French Patent 26 01 111. This headlight has a two part pot-shaped housing in which two, rigidly attached to one another, adjustable, reflectors are mounted. A front side of the pot-shaped housing is closed by a bowl-shaped light-transmissive shield. A surrounding edge of the light-transmissive shield is mounted in a groove of an outer edge of the pot-shaped housing. The housing includes a rearward part for supporting both reflectors and an intermediate part arranged between the rearward part and the light-transmissive shield. An opaque-baffle frame is formed on a front edge of the intermediate part of the housing, with the intermediate part receiving the light-transmissive shield, the opaque-baffle frame bulging convexly toward the front side of the headlight. An outer edge area of the convex opaque-baffle frame, which is formed on the housing, extends into the bowl-shaped light-transmissive shield and its inner edge area is directed toward the surrounding outer edge of both reflectors. One of the two reflectors supports, by means of a frame on its front edge, a light-transmissive screen. Such a light-transmissive screen attached to a front edge of a reflector, because of the close position of the reflector to the lamp, receives a great heat load and, because of this, is usually formed of glass. Light screens of glass, however, have great weight and therefore the reflector, and elements for attaching it to the housing, must be correspondingly sturdy in order to hold the reflector and the light-transmissive screen vibration free in a motor vehicle. The opaque-baffle frame shades light between the outer edge of both reflectors and the sidewall of the housing in the interior of the headlight. A gap exists between the outer edges of both reflectors and the inner edge area of the opaque-baffle frame because the reflectors are pivotal. Therefore, and because the edges of the reflectors which impinge on one another are not shaded by the opaque-baffle frame, the outer edge of the light-transmissive screen and the outer edge of the reflector which receives the light-transmissive screen are easy to see. This disturbs the harmonic optical impression of the headlight. This is particularly the case in the headlight of German Patent Publication DE 44 10 038 A1, because in this case, for one thing, no opaque-baffle frame is used and for another thing attaching elements of a light-transmissive screen, because of the light-transmissive screen's mounting, are easy to see. The light-transmissive screen is plate-shaped, that is, it has no side edge which is directed toward a headlight rear side. Such light-transmissive screens can have, because of manufacturing procedures, an irregular frosted outer edge. The benefit thereof is that, also for a glass light-transmissive screen, between an edge of a reflector and the light-transmissive screen, a groove-spring connection can be employed.
A headlight for a motor vehicle is disclosed in European Patent EP 0 054 444 in which an opaque-baffle frame is made either as one piece with the housing or as a separate piece, and a surrounding inner edge area of the opaque-baffle frame is directed toward an outer edge of a single reflector. For a separate opaque-baffle frame the housing can have a smaller opening on its rear side.
German Patent Publication DE 37 03 129 A1 discloses a headlight in which a unit of two headlights is mounted in a pot-shaped housing closed by a light-transmissive shield. The unit is coupled with the housing to be adjustable and includes two adjacently arranged headlights, one of which operates using projection principles while the other has an exclusively light-bundling, or bunching, bowl-shaped, reflector. An opaque-baffle part is formed laterally to a bowl-shaped reflector, surrounding a lens of the headlight which operates according to projection principles. The opaque-baffle part has a cantilevered attachment to the bowl-shaped reflector and supports in its opening, behind which the lens is arranged, a light-transmissive screen. Because the opaque-baffle part is cantilevered to the reflector and also supports the light-transmissive screen, the light-transmissive screen, particularly for a motor vehicle, is not held vibration free if the light-transmissive screen is constructed of a heavy material, such as glass for example.
It is an object of this invention to provide a headlight of the type described in the opening paragraph above in which a light-transmissive screen is not mounted on a front edge of a reflector, so that the reflector and elements for attaching it to the housing can be constructed to be lighter in weight, rather, the light-transmissive screen is supported on an opaque-baffle frame which holds the light-transmissive screen vibration free, even in motor vehicles and even if the opaque-baffle frame has a thin wall, such that neither elements for attaching nor an outer edge of the light-transmissive screen can be seen from a front side of the headlight, and the light-transmissive screen can be simply and easily coupled to the opaque-baffle frame.